Lightning
by swallowtailedkitewrites
Summary: Wheatley is finally able to escape from Aperture through the use of his android body, and he sets out in search of Chell. It's not long before he gets himself into trouble and is struck by lightning. Will he get his chance to apologize? Eventual Chelley.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Kite here! This is my first story published here on Fanfiction, so please go easy on me. I write stories like this in my free time, so I have quite a bit of experience, but in some places I'm still learning. I promise nothing is misspelled and that all grammar is correct. Feel free to review if you want! **

**All characters belong to Valve! **

It was his only his second day on the surface when it happened. Wheatley had already spent all night walking away from the rusty shed where he'd escaped from, still attempting to get used to his new android body. His steps were awkward and slow, and he often tripped over small things on the ground. The robot could feel his energy falling with every step; his android body had been left in disrepair for so long that it began to lose its charging capacity. Wheatley figured he would have about a couple of weeks on his current charge before he completely shut down. With an insane amount of luck, he would find the Lady and apologize to her before his time was up. He didn't have the faintest idea where to find her, but he kept walking on in blind optimism, hoping to find her somewhere nearby.

A few hours later, a sharp explosion of thunder awoke Wheatley from a what should have been a short nap in sleep mode. Night had fallen while he had been asleep. He turned his glowing blue eyes skyward to see flashes of lightning throughout the clouds overhead, as well as gallons of water that could short circuit him falling in earnest. He screamed in alarm, but then discovered that the water was sliding right off his synthetic skin, just as it would on a human. Still unnerved by the rain, he stood up from his small nest of wheat and began to walk briskly on in an attempt to find shelter. The core on his chest provided little light to go by, and the storm seemed to get worse as time went on.

The wind picked up, sending the rain into an almost horizontal pattern. Scared out of his mind, Wheatley continued to walk on. His usually optimistic morale was dropping quickly. He could barely see through the maelstrom, and he was already beginning to feel tired from all the stress he was under. Then, through the curtains of rain, he caught sight of a small light on the horizon. Whatever it was, he didn't care; it was a possibility for shelter. He began to run full tilt towards the spot, barely managing to keep himself upright in the slippery and muddy wheat field.

Half an hour later, Wheatley was not a mile away from the light he'd seen, now revealed to be a small house. His face lit up in relief. He was going to make it! The robot stopped for a second to catch his breath, but as soon as he did, a great flash of light and a loud, shuddering boom surrounded him, followed by pain not unlike when he'd been in the core transfer. The electricity surged throughout his circuits, hitting every nook and cranny it could find. Wheatley's shrill screams filled the air as he fell to the ground, his whole body paralyzed with intense pain. He thought he could vaguely smell something burning, but he was in too much pain to care. His vision blacked out in places, and he could feel his energy dropping quickly. It was a miracle he was still online.

The sound of running footsteps alerted him to the presence of a human. He was too weak to see clearly or care who it was. When the human reached him, he heard a sharp gasp. He half opened one eye.

"H-help... m-me... pl-please," he said weakly.

Immediately afterwards, he blacked out.

* * *

Carrying a tall, wet, and heavily damaged 200-pound robot back to the house was not how Chell had imagined her evening. Discovering that this robot was undeniably Wheatley, back from his exile in space, was an added bonus. Walking into the house, both soaking wet and exhausted, she placed the android on the small living room couch, his long legs overshooting the end by about a foot. Removing his square-framed glasses and placing them on the table, she eyed him carefully. He hadn't made any movements since he fell unconscious outside. However, Chell could hear that his inner workings were hard at work, struggling to repair themselves after the harsh and unexpected lightning strike. Things whirred and clicked and hummed inside him.

His normally messy but managed dirty blonde hair was now a singed and muddy flyaway tangle. The clothes he wore were also in a similar state, and his core flickered in a dull blue and seemed to be in danger of sputtering out completely. Despite all the pain he'd been in earlier, Wheatley's face held an expression of peace. It was almost as if he was simply asleep. Chell surmised that there was no immediate threat in front of her. She wasn't about to let her guard down so easily either way; she took a seat on the floor and just watched him, waiting for any movement he might make.

Chell's mind was racing. Half of her urged on the notion that Wheatley was a dangerous threat to her safety, and that as soon as he made any sign of waking up, she should toss him out to fend for himself. The other half was more forgiving; wait and see how he reacts. She weighed both carefully. Yes, he'd been horrible and deserved to be punished for all it was worth, but at the same time, he'd been the first thing in That Place that didn't immediately try to kill her. Wheatley had been a _friend_ to her, something that was alien to her after all her tenure in Aperture.

Looking back over to the unconscious android on the couch, she contemplated her options. Throw out the object of her recurring nightmares, or give him a second chance. She stood up after a few minutes, turned off the small lamp at the head of the couch, and made her way to her bedroom. After a quick change of clothes and settling in to bed, Chell made a decision. For now, Wheatley was far too weak to be much of a threat. She still didn't trust him, and opted to give him a couple of weeks to prove himself.

She would give him a second chance.


	2. Chapter 2

A few remaining thunderclaps and the pitter-patter of drizzling rain on windows greeted Wheatley as he came back online. He groaned as he stretched his limbs, wincing at the pain that still remained. "What happened?" he mumbled to himself. His processors struggled to bring his thoughts up to speed. He remembered running around in the rain, he remembered the intense pain of the lightning strike, and he vaguely remembered a human finding him. After that, nothing. Slowly opening his eyes, he was happy to see that no more black spots clouded his vision. However, everything was a muddled and blurred mess. Where were his glasses?

Wheatley squinted in an attempt to clear up his vision and looked around in vain. Just as he was about to try to sit upright, he noticed a strange form approaching him. Stopping in his tracks, he waited to see what the form would do. It picked up something from what seemed like a table next to him and handed it to him. He accepted the item; upon closer inspection, he realized they were his glasses.

"Thank you," he said with relief, and slipped them on. As his vision focused, he could now see that he was in some human's house. He looked up to see who his benefactor was, and his eyes widened immediately.

He was staring right into the face of none other than the Lady! Hoping that his optical processors weren't malfunctioning, he continued to gape at her speechlessly. Chell's face remained stony. She glanced out the window at the rain for a moment before returning her gaze to him. Wheatley struggled to sit up despite a wave of pain, getting ready to begin the endless stream of his apology speech that he'd spent countless days practicing in space, but she gently forced him back down. The mere action of attempting to sit up exhausted him. He fought to keep his eyes open.

"Don't sit up yet," she said. Hearing her speak surprised him and his silence continued. "Get some more rest. Then we'll talk."

Chell then left the room to prepare breakfast, leaving a completely stunned Wheatley alone with his thoughts. Before he could make any more sense out of what he just experienced, his eyes shut and he was immediately sent into sleep mode.

* * *

He awakened much later. The rain had finally stopped, and darkness surrounded him everywhere he looked. Wheatley's internal clock was still scrambled from the lightning strike, but judging by what he saw, he figured it was probably some ungodly hour of night. Immediately remembering what had happened before he fell into sleep mode, his processors sprung into overdrive. He'd finally found the Lady, and he was finally going to get his chance to apologize to her. The robot's mind hovered over the idea of calling out for her right now, but then he remembered she was probably sleeping. His time in the Relaxation Center taught him that it if it was one thing that made humans absolutely _livid, _it was being woken up. Wheatley resigned to wait until she woke up, lest he anger her.

The sharp sound of a scream forced him out of his reverie. "L-lady? Is that you?" he asked into the darkness. After he received no answer and figuring he wouldn't receive one in his current location, Wheatley pushed himself up, wincing at the sharp pain that still remained in his damaged systems. He huffed out artificial breaths, the movements already draining his energy once again. Another piercing scream told him something was definitely amiss. Calling forth all of his strength, the robot shakily rose from the couch and turned on his flashlight. His central core quickly shifted in color from blue to stark white, lighting up the area instantly.

After taking only one step and almost face planting the wood floor, he lowered the brightness of his flashlight and slowly made his way towards where he thought the screaming was coming from. Wheatley eventually pinpointed the source of the noise to a door at the far end of the house. He was hesitant to open the door at first. Besides disliking being woken up, humans also did not enjoy having their privacy invaded. Despite this, he quietly opened the door. His flashlight settled on the sleeping form of Chell. She was completely cocooned in a tangled mess of sheets, and she twitched every now and then. Her face gleamed with beads of sweat and held an uncomfortable scowl. It was plain to see that she was having a terrible nightmare.

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapters! The story in itself is pretty short, so... yeah. **


	3. Chapter 3

Wheatley stood fast with a nervous expression on his face, his processors humming away as he thought of what to do. If he was in the same situation, his thoughts told him, he'd want to be woken up. He knew the feeling well; back in space, all he could do to keep his sanity (and maintain battery power) was to be in sleep mode constantly, sometimes even forcing himself to stay there for days on end. However, he'd soon realized that the more times that he forced it, the likelihood of having nightmares grew. He'd chalked it up to some sick joke that the programmers made on him. Yes, he decided, he would wake her up.

The android cautiously walked over to Chell's side, cringing whenever his footsteps caused the wood floor to creak obnoxiously. This had no effect on her, however, as she was still caught in the icy grip of her nightmare. Finally making it to her side, Wheatley stretched out his hand and placed it on her shoulder. In her half conscious state, Chell's reflexes immediately caused her to send a blazing fast punch right to his gut. His yelp of pain brought her out of her troubled sleep, opening her eyes to see him doubled over on the floor and hugging his midsection. "What are you doing here?" Chell said, surprised.

" Y-you were s-screaming, so I, ah, c-came over to s-see if you were a-alright," he answered, biting back the pain as he spoke.

Her dream came flashing back to her, and Chell remembered that in the moment before she woke up, she had punched at something in the dream. Realizing that this was a complete accident, she came to his side and helped him up. Wheatley hung on to her arms like a lifeline, his prior strength leaving him as his systems rushed to repair even more damage. She sat him down on the bed, and listened as his inner workings hummed and clicked, just as before. A heavy silence fell on the room.

"I'm sorry," Chell said softly after a few moments.

He shook his head and opened his eyes. Damaged or no, he was knew this was his chance. He needed to apologize before something else prevented him from doing so. Wheatley mustered up his strength and said, "No. _I'm _sorry. It's all because of me that you're going through this." He winced, yelping as he fell against the bed. An error message filled his vision, and his core began to sputter out again. "I'm sorry I was bossy, and monstrous, and I deserved to get hit by that bloody lightning bolt," he said, forcing the words out as if he was struggling for air.

Chell's mind began to race. Was he dying? Did her one accidental punch send him over the edge? Her expression telegraphed this to the android, and he gave a weak smile. "Don't worry, this wasn't your fault. I-I kind of already knew that I was going to... d-die anyway." He choked out the words. "See, the lightning bolt sort of f-fried my main charging unit. It only gave me enough power to l-last me for a few hours. All this repairing takes a lot of e-energy, energy that I-I don't have." He stopped to catch his artificial breath, which was growing heavier each minute, while his core's blue glow began to dull out. "But h-hey, I got to see you one more time, and that's something, r-right?" he breathed.

She could already hear his mechanisms quieting down as they began to shut off, one by one. He reached out his hand, and she took it without question. Wheatley's fingers wrapped around her hand, and she was awed at how real they felt. Just as he was about to close his eyes, he spoke, his voice almost a whisper. "Oh, I forgot to ask, what was your name? I couldn't find it in those files..."

"...Chell."

"Chell..." he sighed as he closed his eyes. "I'm so, so sorry."

Shortly after, Wheatley's core stopped glowing, and the hum of his central CPU grew silent.

* * *

For Wheatley, it felt like an eternity had passed in the absolute silence of death; his consciousness had since resigned to the fact that this was the ultimate price for his actions, and that he would never awaken from this, his rightful punishment. When his power ran out, he'd remained conscious for a time, until nothing made sense anymore and he faded into an almost nothingness. He thought it would never change, until one day, something different happened. It was strange, after what seemed like a thousand lifetimes had passed, to feel the sweet tingle of power running through his circuits again. His processors were nowhere near ready to bring him back online, but the vague feeling was welcome to his consciousness. With each passing minute, he felt himself grow stronger and more alert, and his internal displays showed green lights across the board.

Once his internal clock came back to him, it showed that he'd been out of the loop for two months. The clock must be on the blink, he thought, that couldn't be right. But his strength continued to return, and in a few hours' time, he began to come back online. His hearing came first, but there were no loud sounds to tell him where he was. The feeling returned to his arms and legs; the android could feel that he was lying on some sort of soft material. At last, his sight came to him. He slowly opened his eyes to find that Chell was looking at him, a soft grin spreading across her face.

"Ch-Chell..." he breathed, his voice initially hoarse. "Wha... What happened?"

She turned from him and grabbed onto a length of cord plugged into the outlet on the wall, and traced it all the way to his upper back, where his interface port was located. "It took me a while to figure it out at first, but I took out your old charging unit and made you a new one."

His eyes widened. She'd brought him back, even though she had made no previous mention of forgiving him, and she'd done it all for him. "T-thank you, luv, but..."

She stopped him. "It wouldn't be a proper second chance if I left you dead. Now, you'll have to work for it." Chell gave him a stern look, but her steel-gray eyes shone with small glint of trust.

Wheatley reached out and pulled her into a hug, holding her close. "Thank you, Chell. I'll make it up to you. I _promise_."


	4. Chapter 4

Wheatley kept Chell in his arms for a few minutes more, relishing the refreshing feeling of being alive again, as well as the first human contact he'd had in countless years. When the two separated, Chell walked over to the window in the small room and opened the blinds to look out at the sight before them. The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon in the distance, its light setting the surrounding wheat field on fire with waves of golden brilliance.

She briskly moved over to allow Wheatley a better view, his eyes widening at the first sunrise he'd seen in his entire life. He'd always imagined what one would look like; he knew it had a lot to do with that big, flaming ball of fire humans called the sun, and perhaps something to do with a large pointy rock and a bunch of animals gathering around it, but those thoughts paled in comparison to what he was experiencing.

He then tried to sit up and join Chell at the window, but was immediately stopped by her hand. "Take it easy. Your body hasn't finished repairing itself yet."

It was then that Wheatley noticed the cacophony of whirs and clicks that his body was making; he'd been too distracted before to realize it. Now that it had energy, however, the healing process would go a lot faster, he mused. The android merely nodded and lay back down. He could feel his self-repair system working faster than before, and the majority of the pain that had existed when Chell had found him was disappearing quickly.

For the first time in a long while, things looked like they were finally going to be alright at last.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! :) This is the end of this story for now. I might add some more to it later if I get inspired! **


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